


Riverside

by thatrandomnpc



Series: Ripple Effect [1]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Other, Shisui lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-27
Updated: 2017-08-28
Packaged: 2018-12-07 11:14:53
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,789
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11622396
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/thatrandomnpc/pseuds/thatrandomnpc
Summary: Obito makes a side trip, Danzo makes a slight miscalculation, and everything changes.Or that one in which Shisui survives the fall and subsequent fishing from the river, and the future takes a slight turn for it.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this happened. 
> 
> Fun fact: this all started with a completely different idea for a completely different story and somewhere, in trying to guestimate a rough timeline for a few events, this little monster was born. And thus we come to my first foray into writing this fandom in a really long time. I'm still deciding on whether or not to include a couple of pairings and will update the tags accordingly as the story progresses if I do go for those. The next chapter is already finished, so I'll post it after I've had a chance to look through it with fresh eyes. 
> 
> There's some canon-typical violence and injury in this one as well as some mild mentions of grief and guilt. This is also unbetaed. 
> 
> Hope you enjoy! Feel free to leave kudos or reviews. They really mean the world to me if you have the time of inclination.

Obito still remembers Aunt Kyoko.

She hadn’t been his aunt by technicality. It’s the same sort of distant cousin-ship that had made them both vaguely related enough to share the Uchiha name by blood while being distant enough to not bother figuring out words for it. Obito hadn’t cared as a kid because they’d been alike: the kinship of outcasts. Obito, the dead-last bastard child and Kyoko and her son, the decedents of the ‘nidaime’s lapdog.’ The bigger Kakashi’s name had gotten, the more of a disappointment Obito had become; the more hostile the Uchiha and Konaha’s leadership got toward one another, the more suspicion had been turned on Uchiha Kagami’s decedents.

They hadn’t spoken much at first. Just friendly smiles traded on the streets.

Even so, he’s sure that she had something to do with a tiny Shisui turning up at his door with a box of dango, disarmingly big eyes, and request to learn how to throw kunai. Obito, who had still been trying to transition from an orphan’s stipend to a genin’s D-rank salary, had taken one sniff of the sweets and overridden all his better judgement.

Desperate child that Obito had been, he’d spun Shisui’s picking up kunai so quickly as a sign of his excellent teaching skills rather than uncanny skill on his cousin’s part. Kakashi had scoffed at him, but Rin had let him keep that little victory until the village at large (and the Uchiha themselves) started to notice of Shisui’s potential. Rin had liked Shisui’s easy cheer and the way he and Aunt Kyoko went out of their way to drag Obito along on the occasions they could.

Obito had liked it, too. Not that he’d ever have admitted it back then.

Aunt Kyoko is dead now.

Obito had happened across her fresh grave on recognizance not long after unleashing the Kyuubi. The sight left him frozen for far longer than was safe to linger. _Sentimentality_ , Madara would’ve scoffed had he known. But there’s still a little boy in Obito that’s screaming himself bloody and raw and hasn’t shut up since seeing sensei and Kushina death-still like Rin. He knows this is the right thing to do. Something has to change, and there is a price for that. Yet...

Looking down at the battered mess of his little cousin, Obito wonders if maybe that’s why he does it. Because he owes this to a good woman caught in the crossfire. This is the very thing he wants to stop. Children in a warzone, mutilated and left for dead. 

Three dead ROOT agents lay feet away from Shisui. Danzo has temporarily retreated into the shadows with one less sharingan. It’s clear Danzo’s men fished Shisui from the river not long ago; he’s still drenched, shaking, and his once-lively curls are laying limp against his cheek and neck. The fresh blood seeping from his empty eye sockets is diluted pink with the water that still drips from his face. His breathing is ragged and shuddering. One arm is clearly broken, and the fingers of his right hand are still twitching in a way that can’t be normal from where Danzo had pressed his cane against the bones.

“ _Where is it, Shisui?_ ” Danzo had demanded, “ _Who did you give it to?_ ”

Obito can only imagine he’d been trying to find the matching eye to the one he holds in his chakra-infused hand. He doubts Shisui is coherent enough to answer even if he’d wanted to. Cold fury burns in his core. Obito ignores it. He’s used to a numbing, gnawing rage these days.

He isn’t a healer; he isn’t anything like Rin. He can’t re-implant the eye. He isn’t even sure Shisui will live long enough to use it. If Obito takes Shisui with him, that chance is cut from slim to zero: infection would kill him in a week if Obito’s lackluster healing jutsu didn’t first. Not the least of which, Zetsu won’t approve of anything less than taking the eye for their plans, and Shisui’s state is proof that he won’t join Obito’s cause.

(He seriously considers it—taking the eye—for a minute. It would stop an enormous amount of bloodshed, but there’s just… something horrific about it. He remembers how if felt, laying in agony under the boulders with no way to see and no connection with Rin and Kakashi gone, and he just… can’t. Can't inflict that kind of waking hell on kind-hearted, smiling Shisui.)

Dropping him and the eye off close to Konaha’s hospital without protection isn’t an option either. Not with Danzo no doubt holing himself up even as Obito thinks. Not when the Sandaime refuses to act against his old teammate.

That had previously worked to Obito’s advantage. Now it’s just flat out irritating for all the options Danzo’s reach eliminates.

He knows the only option he has left—has already sensed the all too familiar chakra approaching—but all he can think about when he closes his eyes is Rin and Kakashi’s hand _through her damn chest_.

Shisui’s breath rattles on what might be a cough. Fresh blood seeps past his teeth and lips.

Obito does not expect the trembling, weak fingers that very nearly slide off his wrist as soon as they touch it. “Uchiha,” Shisui rasps, voice painfully small and breathy, “Help.” Whatever else he tries to force out is incomprehensible. He just keeps trying anyway, pale lips taking on a rapid blue tint even while they work around sluggish words with no voice to air them.

It’s… deeply unsettling. Not the least of which because Obito knows exactly what he’s struggling to say.

“Quiet,” Obito breathes, more gentle than he remembers himself being capable of.

Determined now, no matter how foolish this is, he spreads the palm of his prosthesis against his cousin’s chest and gathers his chakra as precisely as he can. Medic or not, Obito at least knows how to check for massive spinal injuries.

Shisui goes horribly still. For a brief moment, Obito thinks that he’s just watched the small cousin he once fussed over die. Then feeble chakra moves to touch his. Obito nearly jumps but doesn’t pull back. Shisui’s hand moves again, fumbling clumsily up Obito’s sleeve, over his shoulder, and pausing at the unyielding mask. His fingers blindly feel out the patterns carved into the mask. He works his mouth in the shape of Obito’s name and smiles the smile of someone in so much pain, he’s deliriously numb to it.

His teeth are pink with blood, but he smiles like his own personal angel is under that mask.

Obito decides then that he’ll make sure Danzo will regret this before the end. Soon.

With no damage to the spine to be concerned over, Obito seals the eye safely in a scroll. A shaking hand paws at his cloak, steeling Obito’s shaking resolve. His cousin will live to see a better world. One where his loyalty won’t be rewarded by his own allies stabbing him in the back.

He looks up just in time to see Kakashi and the other mokuten user’s chakra closing in.

He bends down silently and whispers “ _Sleep_.” He activates Kamui and flees before either of them can catch more than a glimpse of his back.

He has a world to fix.

 

 

 

Naruto is halfway up the side of the hospital with a rope and a bucket of paint when someone says “Sasuke.”

(Sasuke, who is a bastard and started calling Naruto ‘dead-last’ last week when he kept missing with shuriken. Sasuke who hasn’t shown up to class in a week even though Naruto doesn’t ever remember him missing class before. Even that one time when sensei had to send him home because he was sick.

Sasuke, who’s road is tapped up with those creepy guys in masks standing around it.)

He’s pretty sure the voice is coming from an open window not far below him, and it has to be pretty close since he can sort of hear people talking. It’s weird because he picked this side of the hospital since it’s closer to the bakery owner he wants to teach a lesson about chasing kids out with brooms and also because people have been building on it, so there are a bunch of footholds. He hasn’t seen a room with a sick person yet.

“Please,” a guy says, “He’s been through enough.” It’s not the grumpy guy Naruto is _pretty sure_ has to be Sasuke’s dad.

(He’s heard Sasuke’s mom’s voice a couple of times, too, when she picks him up at school. Naruto kind of likes her though: she smiles at him sometimes and he heard her scold Sasuke that one time when he was being a jerk and complaining about Naruto. Unless the grumpy guy really is Sasuke’s dad, Naruto doesn’t really understand how he could have a mom like that and still call somebody ‘dead-last.’)

Whoever this is doesn’t sound grumpy or sweet. Just… really sad. The kind of sad that makes Naruto think of empty apartments and sour milk.

“I’m sorry Shisui.” Naruto’s hands close around the drain that he’s hanging from because that’s Hokage-jiji. That’s the same voice he used the time Naruto asked why a girl at the park’s mom told her not to play with Naruto. “A few more days—that’s all we need. Then I will bring him here.”

It’s quiet long enough for Naruto’s arms to start hurting from holding himself and the paint bucket up for so long. “I understand,” the Shisui guy says.

Naruto frowns because it kind of sounds like he doesn’t mean it.

A door shuts, and Naruto lets go with one hand to start climbing again. He’s going to be Hokage one day, so that means getting a head start on showing mean bakery owners they can’t just treat village kids badly.

Somebody yells and something _smashes_.

Naruto flinches at just the wrong time. His fingers slip, and his foot doesn’t catch.

Before he gets that it’s him yelling and falling from the third floor, he’s stock still, hanging in the air from fingers clamped tight around his wrist. Wide blue eyes find a single dark one, and Naruto is pretty sure that guys aren’t supposed to have eyelashes that long. Naruto tries to catch his breath while the guy who caught him pulls him in through the window and to a dark hospital room with a table that’s snapped in half.

He’s older than Naruto, but he's still kind of short. He… sort looks like a mummy with all the bandages that wrap around his hand, neck, and over the eye Naruto can’t see. And, well… he also kind of looks a little like Sasuke with pale skin and dark eyes and hair… if Sasuke’s hair went crazier that Naruto’s. There’s bright pink paint on his arm and the hospital yukata, same as Naruto and his clothes and the floor.

Which means Naruto has probably painted the side of the hospital on accident. Oops.

It takes him a minute to realize the guy is speaking.

“Huh?” Naruto says then frowns and adds on, “Wow, mister. You look really bad.”

The one eye blinks. Naruto wants to tell him that, if he thinks that’s a smile, he really probably needs to be in the hospital. He doesn’t because the guy asks like he’s already asked before, “Are you okay?” He’s looking at Naruto’s wrist where he grabbed it to stop the fall.

…Weird. This is usually the part where people start yelling at him for doing something stupid. Or, _worse_ , frowning at him like they’re disappointed or… _scared_. Maybe this guy is…?

Naruto stands up and puffs out his chest proudly. “’Course I’m okay!” he declares with a grin, “I’m going to be the strongest shinobi in the village one day; heights don’t scare me!”

The guy—because Naruto recognizes the voice as the Shisui guy he’d er… overheard talking—winces and goes a little pale. Which doesn’t look good because he’s _already_ really pale, and he suddenly looks _even more sick_ , and... Naruto… sort of panics and starts moving his arms because sometimes that makes Iruka-sensei smile. “Hey, you aren’t _dying_ are you?” he demands, “Because Hokages aren’t supposed to let people die! Hey, mister, you aren’t allergic to paint, are you?”

There’s a weird second where everything goes still.

Then the guy makes a really weird sound like he’s about to choke. Naruto _almost_ runs out the door for a doctor, but then the guy does it again. This time it sounds a little less like somebody dying and a little more like…

He’s laughing, Naruto realizes. With the look on his face, Naruto had almost missed it because that’s the face most people make when they’re _crying_. And it’s not a nice laugh anyway. It’s _weird_.

Naruto scowls and crosses his arms, “Laughing at people isn’t nice.”

The guy stops and tries smiling again. It looks a _little_ less creepy, Naruto guesses. “No, I…” he trails off and shakes his head, “I’m sorry. That wasn’t very nice, was it?”

Naruto blinks. Pauses. He’s not good at tests like Shikamaru and Sakura, but he knows what people look like when they really mean something. This guy really means it—that he didn’t want to upset Naruto. Naruto still frowns at him, but he puffs his chest out again and shuts his eyes and turns his head to the side. That’s what the people on the posters do when they want to look tough. “I guess I can forgive you,” he decides because he’s going to be a good Hokage who won’t make people sad when they mean that they’re sorry. He peeks out of the eye closest to the guy. “Only ‘cause you’re sick.”

The guy shuts his eye for a minute like Naruto does when he’s trying to calm himself down for a test. Only… it kind of looks cool on him. When he opens his eye again, it’s _almost_ that weird look that Hokage-jiji gives him sometimes. The one Naruto doesn't really understand. “Thanks for going easy on me,” the guy says.

Naruto gets as far as “Why were you talking about Sas—“ when he blinks, and there’s suddenly one of those creepy guys in a mask standing between him and Shisui. He’s… _really tall_ , Naruto realizes, staring up at him as he points at the door.

There’s a shuffle behind the guy before Shisui skirts around the creep with an apologetic look. “He fell,” Shisui says. They both just… stare at each other for a minute while Naruto thinks about crawling back out of the window anyway. The creep drops his arm but still nods at the door without saying anything.

Shisui sighs and nods. He scoots around the creeper like he isn’t scared.

( _Not that Naruto is, because he isn’t scared of anything! Especially not some weird guy in a mask!_ )

He crouches in front of Naruto, but he looks really sad again. Naruto scowls at the creep because it’s probably his fault. “Can you keep a secret?” Shisui asks.

Naruto blinks and nods, “Ninja are supposed to keep secrets.”

“That’s right,” Shisui says. Something in Naruto stutters to a halt because there are only two people who don’t just stop there and tell him he isn’t a ninja and that he probably won’t graduate anyway. “My friend here is on a really important mission for the whole village.” Shisui points to the creep. “But the mission will be compromised if anyone knows about me being here, and a lot of people could get hurt. So you have to keep this a secret, okay?”

This guy is… trusting Naruto with something _really important._ For a second, he just stares at Shisui in dumb shock. Then he grins and gives the guy a thumbs up, “Uzumaki Naruto never breaks his promises!”

Shisui’s eye widens. Naruto realizes in that one horrible minute what’s happened. People older than Naruto just sort of… know who he is. He’d just guessed that Shisui did, too. Naruto is about to make a run for the door but there’s suddenly a pale, bandaged hand in front of him.

He stares at it while he temporarily forgets what a handshake is.

Shisui isn’t running or yelling or telling him to get out.

“Thanks, Naruto,” he says, “Let’s shake on it, alright?”

Naruto does. Shisui’s fingers are a lot bigger than his and calloused like a real ninja’s.

Naruto leaves the hospital through the front door and ignores the looks his paint-splattered clothes get. He doesn’t even think about stealing another bucket of paint to spill on the baker. He stops for ramen on his way home to celebrate.

He sort of forgets about what he’s overhead for the night.

 

 

 

By the time Naruto leaves, Shisui’s limbs decide the jig is up. Gloved hands end up catching half his weight on his stagger back to bed. He’s too tired to protest. He’s only been awake a few days. Even with the medics’ impressive work, he has more than a little recovery ahead of him.

It’s more than he can say about a great majority of the people he knows. _Knew_.

They’re dead. Because he jumped, and Itachi couldn’t… Didn’t…

“Not one your better ideas,” Hound comments with that tone that’s just a _touch_ too casual.

_I know_ , part of Shisui screams until its bloody and raw, but they aren’t talking about nearly the same thing.

He leans back against the pillows and momentarily regrets having pulled out the line for the painkillers. His arm hurts, and there’s a strange numbness in his right hand that he can’t quite get used to. ( _Nerve damage,_ the medic—ANBU in disguise, he's guessing—had said, _The sensitivity probably won’t return much.)_ His whole face _aches_ around the eye that’s still missing—the one Itachi still has—and the one that they managed to reconnect.

His thoughts are too lucid on the drugs though. He can’t control them and compartmentalize like he needs to in order to function right now. And he needs to function. The Hokage is still tracking down Danzo, Sasuke thinks he’s alone in the world, there are three Uchiha left in the world, and Itachi is…  

Shisui has seen war and death and dealt both before actually hitting puberty, but…

_This is his family_.

Was.

_Was_ his family.

He swallows back the lump in his throat and tilts his head to look at Hound. “I didn’t know you thought I had good ideas.” He tries for humor. It comes out rough and falls as flat as Shisui almost had a minute ago.

Hound takes a post leaning against the wall by the door. He’s not on guard duty. Shisui doesn’t have a personal guard because _technically_ he’s still legally dead, and a mass of ANBU on the empty half of the hospital would be a dead giveaway just in case Danzo is in the mood to try for round two. He’s reasonably sure they’re still clustered fairly close by though.

Shisui doesn’t mind that. He's very much in favor of keeping his eye where it belongs for the rest of his life, thanks.

“If I had any doubts, they’re gone after the stunt you pulled,” Hound replies flatly.

Oh. So the ANBU _do_ know. Shisui isn’t entirely surprised. Nor is he surprised that the Hokage has apparently been taking a metered approach with how much information he passes Shisui. Part of him grateful because he doesn’t think he can take much earth-shattering revelations more right now; the other part is so ready to get angry at _anything_ to release the pressure valve but is just too numb to fall into the wounded animal routine.

“Did you need something?” Shisui prompts because he really doubts Hound came here just to scare a kid out of Shisui’s room, and Shisui himself could really use a little while to just stare at a ceiling and _not think_.

Hound’s stare is suddenly less intense. He folds his arms in a way that’s probably meant to look more casual. It works for Shisui only because he vaguely knows what he’s looking for, but he’s pretty sure it would terrify civilians. “I’ve formally requested for you to be transferred to my team when you’ve recovered,” Hound explains, “Hokage-sama will allow it if you agree.”

Oh. Well, that’s unexpected.

“I need to take care of Sasuke,” he replies. If it were just Shisui’s choice, he’d jump at it—anything to funnel the hollowed-out feeling in his gut into something productive. He’s pretty sure that’s the reason Hound is offering in the first place: he remembers Kakashi being there the day they etched Obito’s name in the Memorial—an echoing hollowness in the one eye he could see. He remembers it seeping in worse, like a poison, with Rin.

ANBU pay is second to none, but life expectancy is low, and missions are often long and difficult. Not exactly ideal when he’s factoring in… basically finishing raising a seven-year-old.

A seven-year-old who’d spent long days trapped in a horrific genjutsu of his beloved brother’s making after stumbling onto brutal murder of their extended family.

_Dammit, Itachi. What were you_ thinking _?_

Shit. There’s the lump in his throat again.

Hound nods like he doesn't even notice, “I thought you might say that.” He stands up straight and heads toward the open window. “Watch out for the new chuunin sensei when you get released; I think he might actually _cry_.”

…Or yell. Iruka has always been _really_ good at yelling. Probably both, Shisui figures with a wince.

He can’t say he’d be any better if a childhood classmate managed to come back from the dead. Which…

“I saw Obito,” slips out before Shisui can think better of it. Hound goes rigid. A half-manic part of Shisui wonders if he’s regretting the offer now. “I mean I didn’t _see_ him—eyes and all,” he amends with a vague gesture at his face and a wince, “But I felt him. His chakra.”

Carefully, way too scripted, Hound slips his hands in his pockets. Shisui is sure they’re balled into fists. “You could've sensed anything when we found you,” he points out.

“I know,” Shisui replies, shutting his eye.

He doesn’t know why he said it. Maybe because those hadn’t been the hands and voice of boy who died younger than Shisui. For all the sharingan’s recall abilities, he can remember what Obito’s chakra felt like, but he can’t recall what Obito’s voice sounded like.  Maybe he says it because he thinks Kakashi might be less reckless if he knows Obito is waiting on them on the other side? Maybe because none of this makes sense anymore, and Shisui is desperately trying hard to find his footing a world that’s been flipped on its head before he has to be strong for Sasuke.

Even if that foothold is his dead cousin's estranged rival. 

“Think about the offer,” Hound says. Then he’s gone.

It isn’t long before Shisui is falling back into a thankfully dreamless sleep.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just wanted to send out a special thank you to everyone who subscribed, left kudos, or reviewed! You all are massively encouraging, and I'm really surprised by the positive responses so far! You all are amazing enough to motivate me to crank this next chapter out pretty quickly. I hope everyone continues to enjoy!
> 
> Another special thank you to my best friend, who probably read through three full drafts and encouraged me to go ahead and post this despite my general nervousness with lengthy action scenes. You're amazing. <3 
> 
> As with the last chapter, there's no beta for this one, so all errors are things I skipped over. More canon-typical violence here. One or two more chapters, and then expect something of a slight time skip.

The older kids are whispering and looking at Sasuke at lunch like they do at Naruto sometimes.

Naruto frowns. Sasuke is off by himself in the corner of the Academy training ground. He’s just staring at his lunch and not actually eating it. Naruto doesn’t blame him; it doesn’t look as good as it normally does. Maybe his mom is sick or something. She hadn’t walked him to the Academy that morning.

One of the older boys says something with a frown. A girl punches him and runs off crying. Naruto only notices the other boy—dark-haired and dark-eyed like Sasuke and Shisui—they usually hang out with is missing when he’s not there to go after her. Which… now that Naruto thinks about it, there are a couple of other kids missing, too.

Sasuke seems to be ignoring the whispers. Sasuke seems to be ignoring everything. Naruto knows what it’s like though. Even if this is Sasuke, well…

When Naruto is the Hokage, he’ll have to put up with Sasuke anyway.

Sasuke doesn’t look up when Naruto sits next to him and starts picking at his lunch.

There’s no “go away, loser.” Sasuke doesn’t even seem to notice Naruto is there. It’s freaky. Naruto doesn’t like it.

“I bet I can beat you at shuriken now,” he goads.

Nothing. Sasuke just picks at some rice.

Naruto’s frown deepens, “I beat you on the last test.” Only because Sasuke hadn’t actually been there to take the last test, but it still counts!

Sasuke still doesn’t get mad. He doesn’t even look up.

Naruto stares at him, “What’s wrong with you?”

 _Finally_ , Sasuke glances at him… but then he’s just looking back at his lunch. “Go away,” he mutters.

No matter how hard Naruto tries pushing every button he can think of, Sasuke doesn’t even acknowledge him. It… makes Naruto upset. Worse than when they’re fighting, and he doesn’t understand _why_. Lunch ends not much later, and Naruto is left wondering just what is going on.

He has no idea what the lesson is about because he’s too busy making plans. Eventually he settles on going back to the hospital: Shisui had been talking about Sasuke to Hokage-jiji. Maybe he knows something. As soon as class is over, he detours for some ramen—and extra bowl to go because ramen is the best for making someone feel better—and grins when Teuchi asks if he’s going to take it to a friend. He isn't sure yet. He knows being nice doesn't make someone his friend, but he hopes so. 

Naruto is pretty sure he’ll be okay on money until the end of the month if he puts off buying new kunai for another week. Maybe-friends are more important than having new things, he figures.

He’s really careful that no one sees him go down the alley where the construction is wrapped up for the day. He’s really careful and makes it all the way up to the right window without spilling anything from the take-out cup Teuchi had given him. He gets up to the windowsill and holds on tight this time. It’s almost all for nothing when he happens to look up and see the creep in the dog mask crouched on the side of the building just above him. Naruto yelps and jumps. The creep catches him faster than Naruto can actually see by the back of the collar… Not that Naruto needed it since he hadn’t actually let go… much.

“Are you crazy?!” Naruto snaps, “Don’t just sneak up on people like that!”

Naruto can’t see his eyes through the mask, but he’s really familiar with the look he’s probably getting. He scowls and crosses his arms since he doesn’t need them to hold him up anymore. The creep holds up one finger, points to the window they’re just under, and then shakes his head.

Naruto narrows his eyes, “Why don’t you just talk?”

The creep doesn’t move or speak.

Naruto scowls stubbornly, “Did Shisui do something bad?” The creep shakes his head. “Then he shouldn’t have to be sick alone.” Naruto knows because, sure, Hokage-jiji came by when he accidentally hurt himself on a prank a few years ago, but he couldn’t stay long. Being sick alone sucks, and…

Shisui was nice to him.

…Naruto gets the weirdest sense that the creep is frowning at him. Not that Naruto could really tell with the freaky mask and all. Out of nowhere, he points to the ledge, which Naruto was holding onto a minute ago. Naruto eyes him suspiciously but figures obeying is probably better than risking falling, so he grabs on. The creep lets go of his shirt and leans up to knock twice on Shisui’s window.

Then he just kind of vanishes.

… _which is_ not _cool._ Naruto does _not_ wish he could do that. Because the creep is _weird_ and not _cool_ , and—

The window opens, and Shisui peeks over the ledge. When he spots Naruto, he looks surprised then smiles. It’s better today even if it’s still too sad to be a real smile, so Naruto figures he’s getting better. He climbs in through the open window and pushes the ramen with a grin. Shisui stares at it for a second before he carefully reaches out and takes it. “Is this Ichiraku?” he asks curiously while Naruto closes the window.

“’Course!” Naruto declares, “It’s the best.”

Then the strangest thing happens: Shisui reaches out and ruffles Naruto’s hair. He says “Thanks, Naruto” like he means it. Naruto… is more than a little grateful that Shisui doesn’t ask why he’s suddenly staring. But maybe that’s because hospital food is nasty, and Ichiraku is the best. He looks pretty hungry when he pops off the top of the cup and starts eating. 

Naruto lets him finish most of the food before he asks, “Do you know Sasuke?”

 Shisui swallows the wrong way and ends up choking. Naruto rushes over and thumps his back to try and help. As soon as Shisui can breathe again, Naruto relaxes a little more.  Shisui stirs up the ramen but, like Sasuke at lunch, doesn’t eat anymore. He looks really sad again, and Naruto almost feels bad for asking. “He’s my baby cousin,” Shisui says.

Oh. Naruto guesses that makes sense with the hair and eye color. He tries to ignore the same jealous feeling he gets when he sees the other kids’ parents walk them home from school.

“He was acting weird today,” Naruto says instead, “I think he’s still sick or something.”

Shisui shuts his eye and breathes. He nods and sets side the last of the ramen. “Something really bad happened,” Shisui says, watching his bandaged hands, “Sasuke thinks he’s all alone right now.”

Naruto frowns. He doesn’t… He doesn’t understand why Sasuke would think that, but… he also hasn’t seen the people who walk Sasuke to school in a few weeks. There are faces that are missing on the streets, and it’s all really weird how the whole village looks sad or scared and, for once, it has nothing to do with Naruto.

“But…” Naruto says, confused, “You’re his cousin. Why can’t Sasuke come here?” Even if Sasuke is kind of a jerk, he can probably keep a secret just fine. 

Shisui’s lips pull into a frown. He looks blindly at the other side of the room. For a second, he looks… almost _scary_ , “Because someone wants something from me, and if they know I’m here, they could use it to hurt the whole village.” Naruto doesn’t like that answer. Shisui sees it and sighs. “That’s why the ANBU wanted you to stay away.”

ANBU…? The creep. Naruto blinks. Shisui hadn’t even _seen_ that. How…?

“I’d be a bad jonin if I couldn’t sense chakra outside of my window,” Shisui explains. When Naruto looks up at him, he looks almost normal again. Even better, maybe there’s a little bit of mischief in his face that Naruto relates to.

Naruto still eyes him skeptically, “…You’re a jonin?” Shisui is older than Naruto, but… he’s not _that_ old.

They spend the next half hour talking. Naruto promises he’ll be a jonin by the time he’s Shisui’s age. Shisui says he'll have to study hard to do it, but he also doesn't say Naruto  _can't_ do it. 

Before he leaves, Shisui walks to the window with him. “The ANBU is right; it’s really dangerous for you to keep coming up here while the investigation is ongoing,” Shisui says, and Naruto’s heart sinks. Maybe he's just showing up where he isn't wanted, and Shisui is too nice to tell him to leave. Naruto barely has time to think it before Shisui holds out a hand and smiles. “When it’s over, I’ll buy you ramen for a job well done. Deal?”

Naruto grins, “Deal!”

 

 

 

There’s something really wrong with Sasuke.

Sakura is pretty sure Ino knows something, but she doesn’t say what. It… hurts, that her best friend is keeping secrets from her like that. Even if it’s clan business, it still stings. When Sakura asks her mom about it, she puts her arm around Sakura’s shoulders and smiles sadly. “You don’t come from a clan, so this path is always going to be a little harder for you than your friends,” she says, rubbing Sakura’s shoulder, “They might already know things you don’t. You’re a smart girl; part of shinobi’s job is doing the best you can even without all the pieces, right?”

So Sakura spends the afternoon after her dad gets off work baking cookies like when they sent some to her aunt when she was sick. He lets her use some of the nice wrappers, and they carefully pack them away. She’s really proud of them by the time they’re done.

She thinks about trying to give them to Sasuke at lunch the next day but loses her nerve with all of the other students watching.

After classes lets out, she feels so frustrated with her lack of courage that she rushes out and takes the turn toward the Uchiha District instead of her house with the box of cookies in hand, almost running into a blonde man in a flack jacket. She rushes out an apology over her shoulder, and the shinobi smiles and waves.

It looks… sort of off, but she figures he’s probably very busy and has his mind on more important things.

She catches up to Sasuke, but Naruto is already there. They’re arguing about something. Sasuke has his head tilted away from Naruto, but Naruto is standing right in the middle of the road with his hands on his hips. Sakura thinks about backing out, but Naruto catches sight of her and breaks into a smile, “Hey, Sakura.”

Now they’re both looking at her. She steps forward because she doesn’t want to look like a crazy person. Naruto is eyeing the box with curiosity. Sasuke… is glaring at it…

Suddenly, this feels like a _very_ bad idea. “Hey, what’ve you got?” Naruto asks, stepping up to investigate. Sasuke makes a _hmph_ noise and starts walking off. This is… really not how this is supposed to go.

Sakura swallows her raising panic and clutches the box, “I’m… supposed to be running errands!” She takes a turn toward the nearest shortcut between buildings because she thinks maybe she can still salvage this.

She’s so busy trying to figure out if Naruto is going to follow that she doesn’t notice anything in her path until she very nearly trips over it. She’s been practicing the drills sensei showed them last year, so she manages to keep her footing and turns to figure out just what it is that caught her foot, and… 

It’s a shinobi. Sakura goes pale.

It’s the shinobi she ran into on the way here, but that’s impossible because…

This man is dead. His chest isn’t moving. There’s a tanto in his chest and blood all over the ground. Sakura doesn’t scream but only because terror locks up her joints. As soon as she can move, she drops the cookies and runs back out of the alley. That shinobi _couldn’t_ have been the one Sakura ran into. There's too much blood, and...

She has to tell Iruka-sensei someone is pretending to be the man in the alley!

Cold terror fills her stomach when she slides out to see the impostor in front of Sasuke. “…wants to see you,” she hears him say, “It’s about your brother.”

Sasuke takes a step forward. His fists are balled up and he looks angry, but he's going to follow. Naruto just looks on frowning. They _don’t_ _know_.

“No!” Sakura shouts, "He's a _fake_ _!"_

The impostor's eyes are on her in an instant. For the first time in her life, Sakura feels real killing intent. They learned about it in the academy. Sensei had talked quietly and gravely, but really _feeling_ it... It’s almost enough to drive her from her feet. She stays standing because they’re just three Academy students. They’re not going to win against a person who could take down a trained shinobi. They’re best bet is to get someone’s attention who can.

Sasuke pulls out a kunai. Naruto takes a step forward and starts to make handsigns. Sakura wants to scream. Don’t they get it? They’ll _die_ if they try fighting. The impostor is even looking at them like he can’t believe this isn’t some kind of trap.

 _There_. There’s a pressurized tank across the street. It’s… really dangerous, but it’s _definitely_ eye-catching.

Sasuke rushes the impostor, only to get the kunai knocked out of his hand and a knee to the stomach that lands him on the ground in seconds. The kunai slides across the pavement. Sakura runs and grabs it while Naruto barks “ _Hey!_ ” and tries to make a clone. She doesn’t watch the outcome—just throws the kunai as hard as she can at the tank. It hits. Gas starts spilling out with a _hiss_.

The impostor is grabbing Sasuke by the back of the shirt. He’s fighting back, but the man just ignores it. “ _Make a spark!_ ” she orders the really shabby Naruto clone while pushing it toward the gas. Naruto himself tackles the impostor and comes so close to taking a kunai to the chest Sakura flinches and yells.

It gives Sasuke just enough time to make a round of hand signs.

The fireball isn’t huge, but it’s enough that the impostor has to let go and put space between them. Naruto yelps and jumps back, grabbing his hand. Sakura is pretty sure he’s burned, but that’s nothing compared to the sudden, deafening _boom_  and the force that knocks all three of them over. There’s a ringing in her ears that she wasn’t counting on, and she’s pretty sure she’s scarped up her knees, hands, and cheek on the tumble from the explosion.

When she pushes herself up on her elbows, the impostor is walking their way. He looks… blank. Not angry, not panicked. Just… empty. Impersonal. 

This time, when he grabs the back of Sasuke’s shirt, there’s nothing to stop him, with Sakura down and Naruto out cold. Sakura swallows and tries to get up, but she just can’t.

The impostor stops all of the sudden. He looks at something behind Sakura. She manages to turn to find another shinobi with a sword… who has clearly just left the nearby hospital. She’s almost ready to cry because their chances of survival haven’t gotten any better judging by the number of bandages, but then she sees the guy’s eye.

It’s red and spinning. She’s never seen anything like it.

“Put Sasuke down,” the stranger orders, “and turn yourself in.” Sakura can barely hear him even though he’s talking at a normal volume. She has to read his lips. 

The impostor takes a step back like he’s about to run.

Sakura blinks, and the new shinobi is somehow gone in one second and fighting with the impostor the next. _He’s fast_. So fast, Sakura can barely see it when blood flies from the impostor’s arm, and Sasuke drops to the ground. Even though he's free, Sasuke doesn't move. She doesn’t understand why, but he’s just sitting there, staring at the fight happening less than a meter away, panting and pale.

Naruto groans and rolls over. He blinks, bleary, but jumps awake soon.

The stranger may be fast, but he’s injured. He’s losing ground trying to keep Sasuke behind him.

Sakura looks at Naruto, who looks right back at her. She’s never really understood how shinobi sometimes talk without words, but now she almost does. They nod and struggle up to their feet. It’s messy. They aren’t moving well. Naruto grabs her arm when they get closer. He mouths ‘wait,’ and she listens. He’s right. A little sooner, and they’d be right in the line of fire. As soon as Naruto lets go, they run for Sasuke and each grab and arm. Sasuke is deadweight at first, but he starts struggling with everything he has as soon as it seems to hit that they’re moving _away_ from the fighting.

“ _No!”_ he snarls, elbow hitting hard into Sakura’s side. It knocks the breath out of her and nearly pushes her over, but she staggers and keeps going anyway. Back toward the alley where the dead shinobi is. There are good hiding places there if they need them.

Sakura jumps and nearly falls backwards when there’s suddenly three masked shinobi in front of them. They’re…. supposed to be part of the village, but…

They’re drawing their weapons.

The dark-haired shinobi suddenly appears in between Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke and the new arrivals, but he’s sweating and panting and _bleeding from his eye_. 

At seven years old, Sakura is sure she’s about to die.

The dark-haired shinobi glances to his left …then the three other shinobi just… collapse.

The stranger drops his sword, and his knees hit the ground hard. He sounds like he’s trying to catch his breath, but he’s smiling. “Took you long enough,” he says over the ringing in Sakura’s ears.

She thinks she hears someone else talking. It’s a man with a mask and silver hair, and… he’s casually reading a book. His one eye looks over the dark-haired guy, from the bandages to the blood on his cheek. He says something else, but Sakura can’t understand it because the ringing is getting louder. With a great lurch, Sasuke suddenly yanks his way out of Sakura and Naruto’s hold and launches himself at the back of their original rescuer. The shinobi turns and wraps his arms around Sasuke. His fingers grip the dirty hospital yukata as tight at they’ll go. She thinks she can hear him saying something, but she doesn’t know what it is with his face pressed against the dark-haired shinobi’s chest.

The other shinobi—the one with a book who _had just taken down three men in less than a second_ —looks down at Sakura and Naruto then curiously at the pieces of the tank behind them. She thinks he says something.

She also thinks that she can be forgiven for finally blacking out.

 

 

 

“ _You’re dead, you’re dead, Itachi killed you_ ,” Sasuke breathes like a chant into Shisui’s chest. 

He does the best he can to rub circles against his little cousin’s back and try to catch his own breath. Too much chakra too soon. Spots dance in the corner of his eye, which aches with the burn of using Kotoamatsukami on top of it all. He forces himself to breathe through his teeth because, while he respects Kakashi, he is _not_ leaving him to sooth the panic he’s pretty sure Sasuke will descend into if his suddenly very alive cousin just up and collapses five minutes after coming back from the dead.

Maybe Shisui does have the Uchiha penchant for dramatic entrances after all, he thinks half-delirious. 

There’s movement from his left. He doesn’t have the energy to look, but he’s pretty sure the clever little pink-haired girl just collapsed. Judging by the shuffle and the yelp, he’s pretty sure a startled Naruto has managed to catch her—intentionally or not. Good. The kids have been through more than enough today. 

Kakashi sighs, casual and put-upon, but Shisui can see the sharp calculation in his eye, “Aren’t you supposed to be in bed?” He looks up at the trees where Shisui can sense other ANBU and nods. The unit moves toward the alley and the man Shisui has subdued. Kakashi manages to get him to his feet and slings Shisui’s free arm over his shoulder. It’s everything the Uchiha can do to keep a grip on Sasuke and hold onto consciousness.

“Naruto,” Shisui grits out. The blond is suddenly looking up at him with wide eyes. There's a scrape bleeding on his cheek, but it's already half-healed. “Can you carry your friend to the hospital with us?”

Naruto nods. His cheeks go red while he tries to figure out how to do as he’s asked. It’d be adorable if Shisui weren’t holding his crying cousin and on the verge of collapsing himself.

Getting to the hospital is a blur. Shisui is pretty sure Kakashi instructs Naruto to wait with the girl while he first gets Shisui up to his room and to the bed and then returns to do the same for them. He’s not sure though because there’s a medic Shisui vaguely recognizes as ANBU _(hidden under a pleasant smile and the uniform of hospital staff_ ) on him the second his back touches the bed. 

She doesn’t try to dislodge Sasuke, and he wants to tell her he’s grateful, but he’s so tired. He just shuts his eye for a minute. 

“Kids?” he croaks, when he feels like opening it again.

“Minor shock, a few scrapes and bruises, and temporary hearing damage.” That’s Kakashi… who is apparently the only one in the room besides Naruto, who is sitting with the pink-haired girl on the couch, and Sasuke, who is breathing the smooth even exhales of someone who is unconscious. Since the girl is awake and the medic is gone, Shisui is pretty sure he passed out. Kakashi shoots him a _look_ , “You have a very interesting definition of ‘lay low.’”

Shisui opens his mouth, but Naruto is suddenly hopping off the couch with a loud declaration of “Shisui-nii saved us! You can’t be mad at him for helping his friends!”

Shisui blinks at the new suffix. That’s… really sweet, actually.

Kakashi eyes Naruto. Shisui isn’t sure which ghost from his past he’s seeing imprinted on that little face. He has a guess, and there’s an echoing jaggedness in his own chest.

The little girl sits up straighter and fiddles with her fingers. Her hair falls over her shoulders like a curtain, but she’s got a look on her face that’s just as stubborn as Naruto’s. “If he didn’t help us, we’d be…” she trails off, pale and still _very_ uncomfortable with a clear first brush with death, “They would’ve taken Sasuke.”

Kakashi hums, eyeing Shisui as if to ask how the hell he managed to turn a couple of seven-year-olds on one of the most renown shinobi in the village. Shisui shrugs the best he can with Sasuke tucked under his arm. ‘ _Magnetic personality?_ ’ he wants to say, but he’s recovered just enough to be _furious_ that Danzo went after Sasuke, no doubt for the leverage to bring Shisui and his eye out for the taking.

With the potential charges and a live witness, Shisui is sure he’s getting desperate. An eye capable of wiping his slate clean would’ve been worth the risk of a ploy like that.

Kakashi already knows that, judging by the way his eye hardens grimly. It’s there just long enough for Shisui to see it before he pushes off from the wall he’s been leaning against and addresses the kids. “Considering you’ve all interfered with an active investigation, you’ll be staying here until it concludes. Haruno, your family will be informed that you and the others have been selected to observe a confidential training mission. Consider your cooperation a mission and Shisui your team captain,” he announces in a tone that sounds like a reprimand. He marches to the door and pauses just long enough to smile over his shoulder, “And good work.”

The kids stare at the door Kakashi leaves through until Naruto blurts, “What a _creep!_ ”

The little girl ( _Sakura, Shisui learns not long after_ ) laughs like it’s startled out of her. Naruto looks just as surprised as she does, but, as soon as they look at each other, they’re both laughing. It’s a little manic and probably more than a little the result of coming face-to-face with a real battlefield for the first time in their lives, but it’s enough for Shisui to breathe a sigh of relief, especially when Sasuke shuffles and mutters irritably in his sleep about the noise.

They’re okay. Sasuke is okay. He can sense the ANBU clustered around the building in full force. Apparently they’re finished trying to root Danzo out the subtle way.

Good, Shisui thinks bitterly. He only wishes he could be there when the bastard gets what he deserves.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wow. You all are frankly amazing! Thank you for the wonderfully positive response to the story so far. It has made an otherwise very stressful week so much lighter, and I can't tell you how much I appreciate all the kind words and kudos. 
> 
> I'm a little afraid this chapter is more slow placed than the last one, but I needed it to establish the upcoming chapter, which will be the last before the hop forward in time. I thought about mashing the two together, but I think the word count would've been massive and disproportional to the previous chapters (not to mention, it would've taken about twice as long to get out). Anyway, I hope you all enjoy it! 
> 
> Again, no beta for this, so all the mistakes are completely mine.

Shisui dreams of falling these days.

Wind in his hair, sightless, Itachi calling his name, and the sudden shock of submersion. He’s lucky he doesn’t dream of the impact, but he’s honestly hard-pressed to remember that part even at full consciousness. Part of him realizes he doesn’t _want_ to remember. In his dreams, he never has time to ponder it either because it’s never water he falls into; he recognizes it—viscous and metal—as blood.

A hysterical part of him puts faces on it: cousins and aunts and uncles.

Itachi calls his name the whole time, getting further and further away as Shisui sinks like a stone, deeper and deeper.

That night, he jars awake with the realization that someone _is_ calling his name, but it isn’t Itachi. Sasuke is awake. His little hands are balled into fists, and his shoulders are shaking. Shisui can’t see much more between the way Sasuke is sitting up and the low light. He’s sure he wouldn’t like it any more than what he does see.

“Sasuke?” he calls quietly, mindful of Naruto and Sakura sleeping on the extra beds someone must have brought in after he fell asleep.

“They’re all dead,” Sasuke says. It’s a terribly dull tone, devoid and empty of anything in the same voice that, three months ago, proudly declared his intention to start a tomato garden with Mikoto.

This, Shisui—former child soldier—knows all too well. He’s careful to make noise when he reaches out. Sasuke still jumps when Shisui’s hand gently grabs his shoulder to coax him to lay back down. He hesitates, one minute stiff as a board, and the next ever so carefully obeying to tuck in against his cousin’s side.

Sasuke’s eyes are flat and haunted. Like a part of him is still trapped in Tsukuyomi.

It’s likely not all that far from the truth.

He doesn’t… He doesn’t understand how this happened.

“I know,” Shisui manages. It’s not soothing. He can’t make it come out that way. He doesn't think this is something that can be soothed.

It’s quiet long enough that Shisui thinks Sasuke has gone back to sleep. Then, abruptly, “You’re alive. He’ll come back.” There’s suddenly ice in Shisui’s stomach. In the shocked silence, Sasuke bites out, “When he does, I’ll—“

Surely Itachi didn’t think…?

“ _We_ ,” Shisui chokes. He barely even feels the way Sasuke goes stiff and uncomfortable. “ _If_ he does, _we_ will deal with it. Together.” He wants to be sick—can feel the way the horror and shock of it leave him numb and on the verge of the mania that’s been sitting in wait since he woke up the first time in this new world. The only thing he knows is that he can’t let Sasuke and Itachi destroy each other—for either of his cousins’ sakes. Shisui has recently become intimately acquainted with just how badly desperate, self-destructive plans tend to backfire.

If Sasuke kills Itachi, it will destroy him. Even if he never manages it, Shisui thinks the process of trying will do the job all the same either way.

“You’re not alone, little cousin,” he promises Sasuke, “This is ours to endure together. But I need you to trust me for now.” 

Sasuke goes slack but for the slowly waning tremors.

Shisui wants to cry with the relief and pent up grief. Sasuke doesn’t respond, but he also doesn’t reject Shisui outright. It’s… a start. That’s really all he can ask for, all things considered.

He spends most of the night watching the ceiling and trying in vain to find sleep.

 

 

 

The next day isn’t great, but it’s… better.

Naruto and Sakura are awake first. Naruto enthusiastically takes the time to fill Shisui in on the events of the previous day, from the kids leaving the Academy to Shisui showing up to defend them. There are gaps in his information that he prompts Sakura to fill. She balls up her hands into fists on her knees and recounts how she found the body and decided on the plan of action that ultimately led Shisui to them. She’s uncomfortable with the sight of what is most likely her first direct exposure to the variety of bloody death shinobi regularly face. On top of that, Shisui hasn’t ever heard of a comrade with the family name ‘Haruno.’ He’d put good money she’s civilian-borne and holding herself together remarkably well for it, given the circumstances and their training level. Even Naruto looks vaguely uncomfortable.

“That was clever,” he tells Sakura, “Thinking fast under pressure is part of a shinobi’s job.”

“Yeah!” Naruto declares, grinning at Sakura, “Sakura is really smart!”

Sakura goes red with surprised embarrassment at the sudden praise. She looks at Naruto like she’s just really seeing him for the first time. Shisui gets the sudden feeling that, while they’re no doubt classmates and might make one hell of a team one day, they don’t really know each other all that well yet.

He gets the confirmation when Sasuke wakes up in the middle of Naruto swinging around a curtain rod in what Shisui is pretty sure is supposed to be an imitation of his kenjutsu style. No matter how well they worked in a life-or-death situation, Sasuke and Naruto are suddenly bickering in the middle of the room in less than ten minutes of being mutually awake. Sakura stands off to the side, looking back and forth between the two of them like she wants to cut in but can’t quite figure out where or how.

Shisui… is more than a little convinced at that point that watching the kids is Kakashi’s version of revenge for blowing his plan for a doubtlessly neat stealth operation straight to hell.

“Hey, hey,” Shisui cuts in, sliding his feet over the side of the bed. His legs protest for just a second, but he pushes past it and gets to his feet anyway. There are suddenly three sets of eyes on him in the complete, tense silence. Naruto’s disapproving “You shouldn’t be out of bed, Shisui-nii” finally breaks it.

Sasuke shoots Naruto a cutting glare but doesn’t actively protest what Shisui is guessing his issue is the new title. Sakura also nods in agreement, “The doctor said you could hurt yourself again.”

Well, considering Shisui (now thoroughly awake) has placed the ANBU medic as Hawk— _Sato, out of uniform_ —he’s pretty sure whatever she’d actually said had probably involved a lot more cursing Shisui’s parentage, general recklessness, a lot less traditionally child-friendly language, and a lot more threats of bodily harm than Sakura’s polite translation lets on.

High ranking shinobi are funny like that. Something about ‘unhealthy coping mechanisms.’ Shisui read that pamphlet but paid about as much attention to it as anyone else.

He smiles sheepishly and sits back down now that he’s been thoroughly scolded by three squirts half his size. At least he has their attention now. “Our mission is to lay low, right? So how about we pass the time with some stories for now?”

Naruto crosses his arms and scowls at Sasuke. Sasuke glares at Naruto. It’s a tense ten seconds before they both take a seat on the couch. Sakura looks as relieved as Shisui feels that they don’t start fighting over who gets to sit where.

Sato returns at lunch with food and some games for the kids. As soon as they’re distracted, she pulls Shisui aside to make sure he’s still healing properly, particularly with the excretion he put his eye through so soon after a traumatic injury. “I don’t know if you’re lucky,” she says, “or if you Uchiha are just built to spite the laws of conventional biology.”

“Spite,” Shisui says with a touch of a tired smile, “Definitely spite.”

He ends up having to distract the kids again at dinner by talking Naruto and Sasuke through a couple of basic kenjutsu strikes while he lets Sakura, interestingly enough by request, help run his right hand through the physical therapy exercises. Naruto doesn’t really have a knack for a sword the way Shisui thinks he eventually will with smaller weapons, but his enthusiasm keeps Sasuke on his toes.

Shisui is unspeakably grateful for the harmless bickering for what it does for Sasuke. He thinks the look on Sasuke’s face the night before will haunt him until he dies.

 

 

 

Over the next couple of days, the pattern repeats: Naruto and Sasuke argue, Sakura is caught in the tide of it, and Shisui ends up cutting in before things escalate. The only real deviations are on the last day, when Sakura glances at Shisui before stepping in to suggest they finish up one of the games they abandoned. It works well enough, and the boys change their bickering towards the more harmless sort with the game and Sakura’s winning streak acting like a buffer.

Shisui smiles gratefully.

It takes two more days of being holed up in the hospital room before he senses Hound’s chakra at the window again. There are two soft taps against the glass before that chakra slips a little further up the building. He’s recovered just enough that he glances at the sleeping kids to make sure they’re really asleep before he opens the window and walks up the side of the building to the nearest scaffolding where Hound is perched. His legs are aching and he feels drained by the time he settles on the bar next to the ANBU captain, but it’s a good kind of ache. The sort that means he’s healing.

“Danzo has been placed under a full guard and is awaiting judgement from the Hokage,” he reports in a lazy drawl as he looks out over the village, “An official statement of your survival will be released tomorrow morning.”

In other words, Sasuke, Sakura, and Naruto are free to come and go as they please, and Shisui can leave as soon as the medics clear him.

Shisui can see Obito’s sharingan through the mask with the full moon out. He doesn’t want to think about it much. Too many parallels, and he can’t afford to break down yet. Instead, he looks down at his right hand. The fingers are so numb, he can barely feel the Fall cold in the metal scaffold they rest on. “I’ve thought about your offer,” he says, “I’ll run missions for you. Only intelligence. Nothing longer than a week and nothing until I can get Sasuke settled and my head on straight.”

“Pining for a job in Jiraiya’s network?” Hound asks with that dry sort of almost-amusement, “You’re suited for it.”

Shisui can’t find it in him to smile. Not with the directions his thoughts are flowing. “If I’m right, he’ll have a new spy soon,” Shisui says carefully, “I want to be the one that spy reports to.”

This will be messy. An emotional landmine to say the least. He owes this much to Itachi for pushing him onto this path in the beginning. He can only hope that he’ll have a chance to run interference before this ends bloody.

 _Bloodier_ , he amends grimly.

Hound watches him. He’s too quick to not know that all the pieces aren’t adding up. Shisui sees it the very second that they rearrange and _click_ together. He almost wants to cry with the relief that he doesn’t have to shoulder this all alone. ‘ _Itachi killed_ you’ Sasuke had said, and it had almost made him nauseous. Even if neither of them ever talk about it aloud, someone else will know, and that’s…

It’s not enough, but it’s… something.

Hound’s eyes fall back to the village at large. “Danzo doesn’t know who killed his men that night,” he admits, “None of ours are claiming it either.”

Shisui… doesn’t know what to make of that. Someone outside of Konaha’s ANBU and jonin killed three Root members, saved Shisui, and left without taking the virtually gift-wrapped, monstrous power of his eye. They had to have known. No one had been all that subtle questioning him about the other eye, and the uchiwa plastered on his shirt wasn’t exactly indistinct. He finally settles for a scrunched nose and “That’s… disconcerting.”

Hound hums his agreement. He slips a hand into a supplies pouch and hands Shisui a scroll. “From Hokage-sama.”

Shisui tilts his head curiously because it doesn’t look like a mission scroll. Not that he’s particularly in any shape to go on a mission if he gets tired scaling a wall in the shape he’s in. He breaks the seal and unfolds it just enough to get an idea of what he’s looking at.

Which is apparently the deed to his grandfather’s home, outside of Uchiha land both traditional and recent. He remembers the annual trips with his mother to clean the place up and keep it from falling into disrepair—remembers the way she’d looked at it like she wanted to move back in the second it wouldn’t cause a stir among the council or Uchiha elders. She'd never gotten to. The two of them in Uchiha Kagami’s house would've been an obvious political symbol they couldn't afford to make at the time... at any time really. Until now.

Huh. Well, that’s much better than the apartment he was planning on renting. While he hates the idea of the house his mother raised him in empty and abandoned, he can’t let Sasuke grow up surrounded by bloody specters haunting every twist and empty turn. Especially not after that first night. Shisui is a fully trained shinobi and war veteran with a history in black-ops; if he knows it’s a stretch to ask of his own sanity, he’s not asking it of his baby cousin.

Hound stands up while Shisui carefully rewraps the scroll. “Even if the main foundation has been uprooted,” he warns, “Stay on your guard. Especially now that you have an association with Naruto.”

Shisui’s jaw clenches almost hard enough to hurt. He can’t think of a response that isn’t angry and bitter. Objectively, he knows how the council, at the very least, might think about it: Shisui, with his Kotoamatsukami, befriending Naruto, the Kyuubi’s jinchuriki, so soon after finding a very good reason to be furious with the actions they allowed one of their own to condone. Well, a bitter, grieving part of him thinks, it won’t hurt them to have to sweet about it if they’ve so long forgotten his grandfather and Shisui’s own loyalty.

He doesn’t have to think of a response in the end: Hound is already back in his perch for guard duty, and Shisui walks back down to the room before any of the kids are any the wiser.

 

 

 

The following morning, the Hokage shows up to officially welcome Shisui back from the dead and send the kids off to the Academy or, in Sakura’s case, home to check in with her parents. Naruto proudly declares that he’ll be back later to make sure Shisui doesn’t starve to death on hospital food. Sakura bows and politely thanks him for looking after the three of them. Sasuke… 

Sasuke gives Shisui a look like he’s just waiting for this to all come crumbling down between class hours.

Somehow Naruto manages to catch his attention when he announces that they’re going to be late because they’re going to walk Sakura home first. Sasuke glances between the two other kids in question and frowns. Both of them seem to be holding their breath until he rolls his eyes, shoves his hands in his pockets, and mutters out “Fine.” 

For Sasuke these days, that’s a glowing seal of approval.

“Yeah!” Naruto declares, slinging an arm around each of their shoulders, “If those guys come back, we’ll kick their _ass!_ ”

It’s all Shisui can do to bite his lip between Sasuke's half-hearted attempts to re-establish his personal space and Sakura’s scolding “ _Naruto_. Don’t go picking fights!” He doesn’t tell them that they’ll probably have a protection detail for a while now.

Alone with the Hokage, Shisui’s smile falls. He waits until the door closes and everyone else is far out of hearing range. “I want to contact him,” Shisui says, “Establish check-ins as soon as I can travel.”

Sarutobi hums considering. He doesn't have to ask how Shisui refers to. “His position will remain tenuous for a time,” he points out, “And we are unaware of how many standing orders my old friend has left in regards to you.”

Shisui clenches his fists in his lap. He knows, but… “Then send me with a team,” he offers, “Just far enough to get close to the rendezvous point without trouble. Please.”

He doesn’t like begging. He has some Uchiha pride in him after all. He’s definitely not above it for the people he cares about, and those are suddenly in very short supply these days.

The room is quiet while the Hokage considers the options. Finally, he nods, “I will tell the council I’ve sent you to retrieve your eye. Be as discrete as possible.”

Shisui sighs his relief and does his best approximation of a bow without standing up. “Thank you.”

He ends up grabbing one of the kunai he’d bribed Sato into leaving him to cut a thin twig from one of the trees around the hospital on a walk to rebuild his strength. He ignores the stares and whispers in the hallways in favor of placing a precise break in the stick and molding it as carefully as he can into something similar to the one he’d taught Itachi to track on during that first training mission turn all too real so long ago.

When he’s back in his room, he spares enough chakra to summon one of his crows. He hands it the stick to clutch between its beak and sends it off.

With nothing left to do, he sits back down and tries to work on adjusting for the change in depth perception. He can’t be sure the other eye can be re-implanted. He gets that it’s probably a small miracle that the one Danzo stole could be. Even in the best case scenario, he’ll have to run at least one mission like this.

Iruka storms in at lunch and distracts him from his dread. Shisui is reasonably sure he’s just run out of work as soon as the clock clicked over to lunch because he’s pretty sure it’s only been five minutes since then, and there’s a suspicious ink stain just to the right of his scar. With the hair falling out of his ponytail, he looks like a mess. It’s all Shisui, still out of sorts, can do to just stare.

“Uh…” he says sagely, “Long time no see?”

Because, really, it has been. Shisui hadn’t advanced as quickly as Kakashi, much less Itachi, but he’d lost contact with a number of his Academy classmates after a couple of rapid field promotions, the war itself, and the coup. Of all of them, Iruka had been the one who he’d actually kept in semi-regular contact with.

It’s a far cry from their first, tense meeting as kids.

Now that he thinks about it, they haven’t spoken since before his mission to the front lines with Kiri.

And _.._. those are probably tears in dark brown eyes. Like an oversized, kicked puppy. Apparently he's picked the wrong words.

“You…!” Iruka starts. Not quite yelling. It’s weirdly quiet and chocked. He backtracks, inhales, and purposefully squares his shoulders and clears his throat. It lasts… for about five seconds. Until he gets a good look at the bandages wrapped around Shisui’s eye and his face crumbles again. “You’re eye…”

“I’m working on it,” Shisui tries. Because he is… right after the inevitable, emotional explosion that will be facing Itachi.

Itachi, who probably still thinks Shisui is dead.

Itachi, who wants little Sasuke to grow up and kill him.

Iruka sighs and rubs his hands over his face… and apparently only just realizes he’s run clean across the village in five minutes flat. He sighs, visibly regroups, and pinches the bridge of his nose. “Only you….” he mutters. He takes another deep breath, and this time it seems to hold. His smile is a little off, but it’s stable and relieved. “I’m glad you’re okay.”

For all that’s happened over the past couple of weeks, so is Shisui. It’s far from okay— _Shisui_ is far from okay—but he’s feeling more like himself over the past few days than the lifeless, listless thing he’d woken up as.

Iruka doesn’t stay long. Not when another academy teacher shows up, huffing and puffing, to apparently make sure everything is alright and assure a suddenly red-faced Iruka that someone is watching the kids. Shisui appreciates the interruption anyway. Iruka promises to drop in again soon.

When Sasuke doesn’t come back immediately after class, Shisui recognizes his own paranoia and ruthlessly tries to stomp it down. He isn’t Mikoto or Fugaku. He never will be and can only hope that he can do right by them for all his screw up has resulted in for both them, their clan, and their sons. He reasons with himself that someone would’ve told him if there was trouble and vents his concerns into walks.

When Sasuke does show up, it’s with Sakura and Naruto on his heels again. Sakura hands him a box, which turns out to have cookies in it, Naruto has a ‘Get Well’ card that’s honestly way too flowery for Shisui to even begin to suspect that he picked it out himself, and Sasuke has Shisui’s tanto awkwardly tucked under his arm with a full pack in the other. 

“Sakura’s dad let us make cookies!” Naruto exclaims excitedly. He’s buzzing with energy, all but bouncing on the balls of his feet. With a start, Shisui realizes that was probably the first time Naruto had ever been invited into a friend’s house.

“We all helped,” Sakura adds on, a little sheepish and more than a little pleased, "I made the dough, Naruto cut the shapes, and Sasuke supervised." 

Naruto side-eyes Sasuke and mutters something that sounds suspiciously like "lazy jerk." 

Sasuke rolls his eyes and hands Shisui his weapon. It's comforting in his hands again. The balance is far better than the one he'd nabbed on the way to the kids.

Shisui wonders why Sasuke let them drag him into it, but he gets the feeling his little cousin doesn’t even realize quite how much he needs the interaction until he’s been pulled, scoffing and bickering, into it. Naturally, Shisui shares his bounty with the kids. Naruto and Sakura head out later that afternoon with Naruto complaining about an upcoming test and Sakura trying to goad him into studying for it. 

Shisui is glad Sasuke wordlessly seems to accept that he’s sticking around for now, even more so when none of the staff—regulars now instead of ANBU dressed up like staff—say a word either. He may have the deed to Kagami’s land, but the place hasn’t been set up to function for well over forty years. He won’t let Sasuke go back to the District alone. Especially not when he’s reasonably sure—if only by the return of his favored weapon and the sack full of familiar clothes and supplies is anything to go by—that’s exactly what’s been happening prior to a few days ago.

When he’s finally released from the hospital, he’s got a small fortune he tries not to think of as blood money to split between himself and Sasuke, an old musty house built by the Shodaime outside of Uchiha land—both new and old—and a move to make in every sense of the word. 

Sasuke eyes the lawn like it’s a snake with its mouth wide open. Shisui ruffles his hair just to get that tiny scowl aimed at him again. He understands though: this is a divorce from everything Sasuke has known. He’s sure it feels like a betrayal that he only really puts up with because of the looming threat of a relapse into absolute loneliness. “We’ll make it work, little cousin,” he promises.

Sasuke makes the skeptical _hmph_ sound he hasn’t quite grown into yet.

Shisui says a silent prayer to any of their kin watching over them that those won’t just be empty words in the end. 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello again everyone! Let me start off by apologizing for the long wait for this update! I got paranoid and was in the process of rewriting a couple sections when I came down with a sudden and really nasty case of food poisoning, which put me behind on several things. Luckily, that's all past, so hopefully back to fairly normal updates! 
> 
> Again, I just want to say thank you all so much for the very positive response! It means a ton to me to know that you all are enjoying the story! 
> 
> Here's an IMPORTANT NOTE about what I've intended to do with this story: I've decided to go ahead and split this story into separate works within the same collection. The separate works will correspond to any major jumps in time the story takes. My reasoning behind this is that each continuous section of time (as I have it outlined so far) has a different focus plot-wise and therefore works better as a separate entity within the same universe by themselves. This also allows me to avoid the pitfall of announcing pairings mid-way through the work and inevitably surprising some readers with something they might not want to read. Maybe that's a little paranoid of me, but I really want to avoid that possibility! Granted, if you all also think this is a really bad idea, feel free to let me know, too. If that's the consensus, I'll take off the complete status on this work and continue to update this one rather than a new work under the same series. 
> 
> As usual, I have no beta, so the glaring mistakes that I naturally only notice after editing and posting are all mine.

Shisui wakes to the sound of a bird pecking at his window.

Even with months off of the field, he’s up in an instant. His crow’s dark eyes stare back at him through the glass, but she isn’t alone: there’s another bird sitting just off to the side. It holds its weight unevenly on a right leg that’s held in the awkward fashion of an old break. Shisui recognizes the crow instantly as one of Itachi’s favorites—a crafty thing that hasn't see battle much for the obvious reasons.

He has the traps defused and the window cranked open as quickly as he can manage it.

Itachi’s bird watches him with cautious dark eyes while Shisui’s own hops down from the windowsill onto his outstretched hand. She offers up the scrap of what looks like wax paper in her break. Shisui carefully unfolds it while she moves to her favorite spot on his shoulder.

It’s a wrapper with a logo on it. Shisui recognizes it from a tea shop near the border, particularly famous for their pastries. Once, on one of the rare missions they’d run together, he’d made a game out of teasing the hell out Itachi until he’d agreed to stop there. He turns it over. There, in a familiar, neat script, sits a jumble of numbers. It’s a date in a code that Shisui recognizes as one that’s been in their clan since their ancestors fought the Senju.

He crumples the wrapper in one hand and takes a steadying breath.

Itachi’s bird tilts its head curiously. He reminds himself that Itachi wouldn’t have sent a bird—risked _this_ bird in particular—if he didn’t think there was a chance that Shisui had really been the one sending the message. It’s a gesture of faith.

“I’ll be there,” he tells it then adds on, a little choked, “Watch out for him, okay?”

The bird makes rumbling purr that Shisui takes for acceptance and takes off out of the window. Smart creature. Best it not linger around the village long enough to risk being recognized.

Shisui sits down on the edge of the bed with a heavy sigh. His bird hops down and takes up a perch on Shisui’s bookshelf to bed down for a rest. He eyes the neat script on the wrapper one more time before he burns it to ashes with a spark of chakra.

“Shisui?”

He startles, gaze flying to the source of noise at the door. He almost relaxes when he registers Sasuke in the shadows of the hall. _Almost_. Sasuke’s face is leeched of color. His hands are balled into fists. A glint of metal draws Shisui’s gaze to the shuriken clenched between his fingers.

Shisui frowns, brow knotted up in concern as he approaches his cousin. “Is everything…” he stalls out with a sudden realization as he sneaks a glance at the crow, who is carefully preening her feathers. He thinks about the distinctive noises crows make and how this can’t be the first time Sasuke has heard them. “Oh,” he breathes.

Sasuke goes tense. He seems to have dismissed Shisui’s bird in his haste to make a prideful mental retreat. It doesn’t take long before he ties for the more literal version and turns back down the hall.

“Hey Sasuke?” Shisui calls. Only when Sasuke actually stops does Shisui’s stalling brain actually remind him that he probably needs something to follow that up with.

_Shit_.

“Do you want to practice shuriken?”

_Dammit._

He winces the second it comes out of his mouth and waits for the inevitable implosion. He’s still braced for impact when Sasuke glances suspiciously over his shoulder. “It’s three in the morning,” he points out dryly.

Shisui could point out that Sasuke isn’t likely to go right back to sleep after thinking—rightfully Shisui guesses—that Itachi’s favorite summons were in the house. He could point out that getting lost in something technical and physical calms both of them down most of the time. Instead, he just shrugs with the best smile he can muster up, “So? Shinobi have to be able to fight in the dark.”

…not for the first time in the past two months, Shisui dreads the moment he actually dies because he’s reasonably sure Mikoto will be waiting there just to throttle him.

Sasuke isn’t happy. He telegraphs it with a frankly alarming efficiency for such a tiny little body, but he still follows along while Shisui grabs a pack of his shuriken and heads into the back yard. There’s a post set up specifically for this sort of thing. If Sasuke throws a bit harder than necessary, Shisui doesn’t bring it up. He sits in the dew-wet grass and tosses out the occasional pointer or makes a suggestion to bump up the difficulty when Sasuke retreats into his own head. Something tells him Sasuke isn’t really interested in a lesson or a conversation so much as someone sitting nearby while he burns out whatever he’d felt when he’d heard the crow.

They don’t talk much. Within an hour though, Sasuke’s throws are softer and lazing more and more to the left. It’s only when he misses entirely that Shisui picks up the shuriken and calls it a night. Shisui pretends not to beam a little at the “try not to hit another wall if you get up again” Sasuke parts with.

For Sasuke, that’s practically a heart-felt ‘thank you.’

 

 

 

 

Things are going… really well for Naruto.

Which is great. Really. He’s _really_ happy—happier than he ever remembers being before. Shisui must be good luck or something because, for two months now, Naruto has had _friends_. Well… friends and a Sasuke. Because Sasuke is still kind of a jerk. But well…

There’s the day Iruka-sensei asks him another question Naruto can’t answer in the middle of class. Some of the other kids laugh. Naruto turns red and starts yelling because _it’s not fair_. He knows they’ve got parents to explain the stuff Naruto doesn’t get. Iruka-sensei ends up stopping the fight before Naruto can show them that he’s strong, even if he’s not as good at tests.

At lunch, he’s too busy kicking up a clump of dirt to notice anything is different until Sakura is suddenly there in front of him. He stops and blinks at her, confused. There’s a second where they just sort of stare at each other before she nods like someone asked her a question.

Naruto is pretty sure no one asked her a question.

“Uh…” he starts, banking on whatever he says next being charming and cool.

Then Sakura blurts out, “I can help.”

Naruto squints his eyes, “…you want to mess up the grass?”

Now Sakura looks confused, too. Oops.

He doesn’t even notice Sasuke until he walks right past them to sit against the tree next to them. “She’s talking about class, moron,” he mutters, settling down with his lunch.

Oh. Naruto looks at Sakura just to be sure. Her cheeks are red, but she doesn’t look sick or anything, so she’s probably embarrassed. Then he notices the book in her arms. _Oh_. When he looks back up, she nods, “I can explain it. If you want.”

Naruto doesn’t really like reading or studying or anything, but well… Sakura is offering to hang out with him, so he grins anyway. “Yeah!” he agrees, “Thanks, Sakura!”

Sakura gets a little redder. Maybe she is sick after all, but she still explains things really well. Naruto doesn’t get all of it, but he understands better each time they go over what they did in class. And they just keep doing it for the next few days. Sasuke, who always sits close to their spot, even sometimes says something when Naruto just can’t get something. He still says stuff like ‘idiot’ and snaps and hurts Sakura’s feelings sometimes, but… he’s also actually explaining, too.

On the days Sakura hangs out with Ino instead, Naruto sits against Sasuke’s tree, too. Sasuke doesn’t talk much when they aren’t arguing those days ( _expect for the time he steals a piece out of Sasuke’s bento, which doesn’t make sense because Naruto wouldn’t be mad if someone tried him help him eat food that tastes as bad as Shisui’s cooking)._ Sometimes, when Shisui is there to pick Sasuke up after class, he invites Naruto to go eat with them. Sasuke doesn’t even complain unless they’re going for ramen again.

It’s on a day that Shisui takes them out for sushi. Sasuke shuffles off to get another plate, and Shisui turns to Naruto. He’s serious again, which is weird because he’s usually smiling and funny now. “I’m going on a mission in a few days. I’ll be back in a week,” he says, “Can you do me a favor and keep an eye on Sasuke while I’m gone?”

Naruto is so surprised he almost chokes on his food. “Why?” he asks suspiciously, “Wait. Are those guys coming back?”

Shisui smiles and shakes his head, “No. I know he tries not to act like it, but this is a hard time for us. I just worry is all.”

Naruto… gets that. They moved. People are missing. He hasn’t seen Sasuke’s parents in months. It makes something cold and sad sit in the pit of his stomach. No wonder Shisui hadn’t been so good at smiling when they’d first met...

He grins and proudly puffs out his chest. “You can count on me, Shisui-nii!” he declares, “The bastard won’t even know I’m there.”

Shisui’s brows lift up to his hairline, but an amused smirk pulls at his mouth and mischief in his uncovered eye. “’Bastard?’” he repeats.

Naruto flushes and wonders if there’s a jutsu to make the floor swallow him. “Er…?”

He’s more than a little glad that Sasuke decides to saunter back to the table then. …even if he does grumble, “Idiot, how could I not know you’re up to something when I can hear you halfway across the building?”

Oops.

 

 

 

 

It’s the dead of night when Shisui slips on the ANBU uniform. He heads to the back window with the easiest access to the rooftops, but Sasuke is there waiting. He sucks in a breath so quiet that Shisui would’ve missed it if wasn’t so silent in the house. There’s a ragged minute where Sasuke purposefully chooses to focus on Shisui’s hair instead of the uniform or the mask.

Sasuke regroups remarkably quickly, “Don’t be late.”

Shisui smiles proudly under his mask. He’s slow as he moves—carefully to telegraph—but Sasuke lets him reach out and grip his shoulder. “I’ll do my best, little cousin,” he swears.

The trip to the team’s rendezvous point is short enough now that he trusts his own footing again at his usual speeds. He ends up waiting half an hour for Kakashi anyway. Given his usual track record, that’s probably a small miracle in and of itself. Then again, there’s the pretty significant chance this is a either a test of Shisui’s speed and stamina under the time crunch to make it to the boarder on time or a statement that Kakashi isn’t usually as late when he’s wearing the mask.

He guesses he’ll find out now that he’s technically taking up duties as an official member of Team Ro.

With only a gesture in the tilt of the captain’s wrist, they move out.

They don’t talk, even when they’re well outside of the range of the village. Shisui puts it up partially to a strange sense of propriety with the mask on and partially up to the practicality of running high-speed stealth. As he’d guessed, the pace Kakashi sets would be brutal if he hadn’t spent the past three months building back his speed and stamina while Sasuke was in class.

They make excellent progress by the time Kakashi slides down from the trees into a good place to bed down for the night. Well… morning, Shisui corrects, eyeing the flicker of light beginning to peek up through the dense forest. They don’t bother with a fire. It’s humid and warm already, and there’s not much need to cook anything with rations packed for a week.

At this point in his life the bark at Shisui's back—what little he can feel through the armoring of the uniform—isn’t much of a discomfort. He leans against it, trying to find the most comfortable way to settle his head to look out at the forest. “Why did you scout me?” he finally asks. 

Both of them have their masks tilted off to the side to eat. With Kakashi’s careful seating and hunch, Shisui know better than to try and catch a look at the fabled mystery of his face. “Who says I scouted you?” comes the metered reply.

Shisui shrugs, for all it actually contributes to the conversation, “Just a guess. Feel free to tell me I’m wrong.”

Kakashi doesn’t. The camp lapses back into silence while they rest. Shisui sighs and lets his eye shut. He’s never been particularly good at getting his mind to quiet, and he’s never hated it as much as he does now.

“I’ll take the first watch,” Kakashi announces. He’s standing, when Shisui looks back over his shoulder, and his mask is back in place. “Don’t waste the time you have.” Then he’s gone, perched up in the low canopy for a better vantage. Shisui gets the double meaning, and it has little to do with the handful of sleep he actually manages to get before he takes his turn at watch. At the very least, the unanswered question gives him something to focus on rather than the day and a half they are from the tea shop.

It doesn’t work nearly as well as he pretends it does.

 

 

 

 

Kakashi holds back just before the tea shop is in view. Shisui trades in the ANBU mask and uniform for traveler’s clothes. They’re in luck that it rains on and off that morning while they scope out the best hiding places for Kakashi to stick to: the hood of the cloak is enough to hide Shisui’s bad eye and characteristically Uchiha coloring.

Not that Shisui particularly expects a trap. Not when Itachi’s birds are just as loyal as Shisui’s own.

The moment he approaches the building on the outskirts of the town, a crow cries loudly from its perch in the trees ahead. Shisui recognizes it as the same one with the old injury from before. He falls into a _shunsin_. With the rest and adrenaline in his system, he can barely feel the way his legs ache from the two days of rushed travel after three months on leave. The bird isn’t nearly as fast as Shisui, even when he isn’t at his best, but that gives him plenty of time to survey for traps in between steps.

There are none. A little manically, Shisui doesn’t know whether to dread or appreciate that confirmation.

All too soon, he feels the edges of familiar chakra ahead. He closes his eye, breathes deeply once, pulls down the hood of his cloak, and drops into the clearing with an active sharingan.

The second he sees Itachi, he nearly loses his footing. For all that he’s prided himself on being able to read that nearly inscrutable face, he might as well be looking at the porcelain of an ABNU mask. Shisui wants to say something. Something witty and clever. Something to clear up the horror and desperation of everything between them. Anything that will break the cloying, empty silence that wraps around his neck and chokes him of words.

His mouth opens, closes it, and then tries again, but words refuse to come out.

Itachi’s eyes bleed red. For a still moment, Shisui is deaf to the sounds of the forest around them while Itachi watches him.

In the span of a heartbeat, something in Itachi’s face _breaks._  He’s suddenly more Shisui’s closest friend than an empty thing shaped like him. Dread, bone-deep relief, and horror wind through his eyes. His jaw clenches tight. With an almost manic start, Shisui realizes that he didn’t recognize this look at first because he’s _never_ seen Itachi so close to running before.

Shisui swallows back the lump in his throat and takes a step forward, fingers reaching out across the three meter divide between them on instinct.

Itachi all but flinches and steps back in kind.

It _hurts_. More than Shisui could’ve ever guessed. Guilt lances through him like a hot knife. “Itachi…” he breathes, “I…” He doesn’t know what to say. What is he suppose to say? What _can_ he say? Itachi is watching him like Shisui is a ghost of vengeance ready to take out the price of their kin’s blood in Itachi’s own. Shisui knows, with the sharingan active, he can’t miss the way Shisui himself is just as pale and unsteady. Carefully, Shisui picks up the tatters of his nerves and swallows back the grief and questions long enough to choke out, “I’m sorry. _I’m so sorry_.”

( _Sorry he dragged Itachi into this. Sorry he thought they could handle is alone. Sorry he panicked and jumped and left everything to Itachi and made him watch. Sorry everyone is dead, and Sasuke will never be the same._ )

Something new shifts across Itachi’s face: shock, horror, and relief, Shisui catalogs manically. Red eyes close only briefly, but when they open again, they’re back to black. He steps forward this time.

At least, Shisui thinks a little more hysterically than he’d like, that’s some progress.

It feels like forever before he walks the distance between them. Shisui tracks the arm that reaches out to him, but he doesn’t make a move to stop it. Not when Itachi’s fingers clamp tight on the front of his cloak. Not when Itachi carefully rests his forehead against Shisui’s shoulder, exhausted, worn, and too small. Shisui swallows back the tears and wraps his arm around Itachi’s shoulders. It’s a loose grip because there’s something so horribly brittle about him. Defensive. Ready to run. It makes a horrible sort of sense given the life he’s had to lead for the past months.

“He said you were alive,” Itachi finally says. His tone is flat, but the trick to reading it is the softness—the way he doesn’t move an inch even though he’s normally anything but touchy. If anything, his fingers tighten like he’s trying to convince himself this isn’t an illusion. “I thought it might’ve been a test.”

Shisui’s jaw clenches. His grip tightens, but Itachi doesn’t run. There’s something unspoken there though: the same fever pitch of dread and resignation. _He expects you to hate him_ , he knows. Maybe… that even makes sense in a twisted sort of way—the same twisted way that dictates Sasuke should grow up to answer blood with blood.

“You came anyway,” Shisui frowns, “You need to be careful.”

Itachi doesn’t answer. It’s been a long time since he picked arguments with Shisui he knew he wasn’t going to win. Still… the soft, heavy exhale against his shoulder sure sounds a hell of a lot like relief.

When Itachi does pull away, it’s by inches. Even then, he doesn’t go all that far. His eyes drift to Shisui’s missing one. Blind on that side, Shisui almost startles at the feel of fingers carefully brushing over the bandages before they fall away. Understanding the unspoken question, Shisui sighs and tries to settle himself. “I’m alright,” he promises, “Just a little banged up. Are you…?”

He doesn’t know what to ask. Itachi is fine physically—he saw that much himself when he'd confirmed Itachi's identity. Anything more, and Shisui already knows the answer before Itachi shakes his head.

It’s with a near-flinch that Itachi ventures, “Sasuke…?”

Shisui clenches his jaw tight and breathes through his nose.  The dull resignation that echoes across Itachi’s face in return stings nearly as much as the confused knot of guilt and manic frustration clawing at Shisui’s chest. He squeezes Itachi’s shoulder because, yes, he’s _furious_ about the idea of Sasuke stuck in Tsukuyomi—about the reoccurring nightmares Sasuke wakes from and the way something vicious and angry sometimes lurks behind his eyes—but it’s anger and desperation and love twinned with desperation.

He thinks that maybe some of that gets through because there’s a flicker of surprise in Itachi’s dark eyes. Something a little like _hope_ in all that guilt. “I’m his official guardian,” Shisui says as neutrally as possible. What he doesn’t say apparently speaks louder than what he does. Itachi’s gaze wanders off, just to the side of Shisui’s shoulder. “Danzo is serving a life sentence,” Shisui adds with more than a little vehemence, “So please don’t make me watch you destroy yourself via Sasuke.”

The flash of anger and grief is as much a comfort as it is another stab of guilt. It looks more at home on Itachi’s face than the dull, empty look from before. Shisui takes some comfort in that. “I know,” he says, “And I’ll never regret anything more in my life—for the position it put you in. Which is why I’m begging you not to make the same mistake.”

Itachi… _smiles_. There’s something genuinely relieved about it even if it is just a bitter, melancholy little quirk at the corner of his lips. Nothing at all like when they were kids, playing around in the forest with new tricks. “Some things can’t be fixed, Shisui,” he says softly, the smile falling into something much darker—a place Shisui can’t follow. His eyes drift back to the bandages. “But I can fix this for you.”

He holds out a hand. There’s only a slight spike of chakra before a crow Shisui doesn’t recognize settles on Itachi’s forearm. The bird cocks its head at Shisui, and…

There’s a flash of familiar red.

“…Is that my eye?” flies out of his mouth before he can stop it, “But… What…?” Because really, anything person-sized should not fit on a bird, much less be compatible with…

Itachi makes a choked noise. Shisui can’t tell if he’s breathed the wrong way or if that would’ve been a laugh in another time. When Shisui looks back, he’s startled by the sight of what he thinks are tears in the dark eyes and the sad half-smile staring back at him. He guesses, of all the things that are normal to Shisui, conversational faux paus are pretty high up on the list.

Itachi sobers quickly, posing his fingers above the eye.

Shisui pales and glances steadily up at the moonlight filtering through the trees rather than risk the sympathetic ache.

“Akatsuki’s leader,” Itachi begins, tone once again monotonous and metered, “He’s an Uchiha. I don’t know what interest he has in you, but he knew you were alive before rumors spread.”

That is… Shisui has no idea what to think of that. He somehow gets the feeling they won’t be lucky enough to stumble on a body missing from the massacre to identify the man. Still, it would be sloppy not to at least check. He listens to Itachi detail the scant information he has: information about his partner—because they apparently work in teams of two—some of the other members he can identify, and general activity. The formal nature of the report gives Itachi time to seal up the eye in a scroll and for both of them to calm back down.

Not long after Itachi hands Shisui the scroll, a crow calls loudly from above them. Itachi frowns, “I need to leave.”

Shisui swallows down the sudden reappearance of the lump in his throat. “Nothing will fix this,” he blurts out and blunders on past the slight flinch in Itachi’s shoulders, “But trust me just one more time to try to do my best anyway.”

This smile is as much a surprise as the last one. It’s not all that much better. It’s just as withered and bittersweet; it reaches Itachi’s eyes though, even as they spin to red while they track Shisui’s face, “You would never betray me.”

Shisui crumbles. Grabs Itachi in a real hug with a muttered “ _Dammit_ ” because he doesn’t know what else to do. The younger Uchiha makes a sound of surprise but goes relaxed in a way that only proves his assertion.

The crow lets out another sharp cry.

“Shisui,” Itachi urges against his shoulder.

“I know,” Shisui sighs, pulling back, “Stay safe, Itachi. I’ll be waiting.”

Itachi is gone in a murder of crows, but not before the whisper of ‘ _Thank you_ ’ reaches Shisui’s ears over the sound of feathers.

 

 

 

 

Kakashi eyes him when Shisui meets him back at his perch in the trees, back in full uniform. “Mission successful,” Shisui reports. The tone is duller than he wants it to be. Even if, in a way, there’s a weight lifted form his shoulders, the dull pang of dread knowing that Itachi’s life has become infinitely more difficult and dangerous has replaced it. He may have established a route of contact, but it still means little if he can't find some way to mediate the inevitable explosion waiting on the horizon. 

Kakashi turns back toward the route to the village. Shisui braces himself to run again, but Kakashi pauses with his fingers braced lightly against the tree trunk. “Did you find your way?” he asks in that tone that’s just a little too casual to only refer to a physical sense of direction. 

Under his mask, Shisui smiles, soft and a little sad but sturdier for the first time in months. “Yeah,” he answers, “I think I did.”

They’re slower on the way back due to a slight detour involving a bingo book target they happen across by sheer luck. Between the two of them, it’s not even a particularly difficult fight, but it does put them back in the village well over a day late. By the time he’s dropped by ANBU headquarters, as per orders, to sit under Sato’s care as she tries to re-attach Shisui’s eye as quickly as safely possible, it’s well past midnight.

For the first time in months, the bandages serve an actual purpose keeping out light rather than infection and a rose until its healed enough to try seeing if everything works properly again. A dull ache settles behind that eye as Shisui makes his way soundlessly to the back window to disarm the traps.

That, he decides for the sake of his pride, is why he misses the bucket of water rigged to the windowsill until it’s way too late.

At least, he thinks as he pushes wet hair out of his face, he’d stopped long enough to change into civilian clothes after Sasuke’s reaction to the mask because that is _definitely_ Naruto howling with laughter on his couch. Sasuke sits on the couch arm, arms crossed and something like worry in his eyes. It doesn’t do a damn thing to mute the smug, vindicated look on his face though. And, yes, Naruto is sitting on the couch, clutching his stomach as he laughs and declares “We got you _good!_ ”

“You were late,” Sasuke says, by way of an explanation.

Shisui shakes his hand to slap some of the water off onto the puddle on the floor. He grins, making sure to show off some teeth. Naruto immediately goes quiet, and Sasuke takes on the first inklings of wariness. “Alright, you little shits,” he declares, more mirth in his chest than there has been in what feels like forever, “I sure hope one of you knows where to get a mop at three in the morning.”

Naruto bounds off the couch, grabs Sasuke’s wrist, and takes off down the hall with a shout of “You’ll never take us alive!”

Shisui catches them before they make it to the front door.

If Iruka wonders why the boys are half-asleep when a smug Shisui drops them off at the Academy the next morning, he wisely doesn’t ask.


End file.
